My latest trip - Part 2

I did indeed dump at the Ranger Station (family privileges - it pays to know someone who knows someone...), then Dianna and I drove over to Blue Ridge Campground in her car to select a space. The campground was totally empty except for the camp host, and I had my pick of the entire litter (of spaces). I chose the best one, a back-in spot with plenty of trees which also happened to be right next to the camp host. I figured the campground would fill up anyway, so no point in choosing an isolated space. Besides, Richard had already met her and found out she was a teacher at our alma mater, Flowing Wells High School. I knew we could be fine neighbors, and I was right. We became good friends as the week wore on.

A hot, dusty walk back to the Ranger Station to pick up my Minnie was almost the un-doing for Hanna and me. We were already pretty tired from packing up, running around in Payson and the drive north, so the 1.3 miles seemed like 3.1 miles. Dianna and I brought Minnie to the campground, got backed in and set up. Dianna went back home, and I took a quick shower and a nap. A couple hours later, I felt like a new woman.

Richard and Dianna invited me to join them for dinner of BBQ ribs, salads and beans, and even picked me up so I didn't have to walk the dusty trail again.The ribs were leftovers from the Hot Shot fire crews who were fighting forest fires in the Coconino, and they were delicious! (The ribs, not the fire fighters. Although if I'd seen any of them, I might have thought they were delicious, too. ;) ) When they brought me "home", we sat outside for a while chatting. It was a beautiful evening.

On Thursday morning, they picked up Hanna and me for a day of 4-wheel adventuring, exploring the back woods of the southern Coconino Forest. We visited several historical and abandoned cabins, stopped at pullouts and overlooks, climbed* Moqui Lookout fire tower, discovered a few developed and dispersed campgrounds, and drove to beautiful Knoll Lake. We were out for nearly seven hours, stopping for a picnic lunch and to look for fiddlehead ferns along the way. I think we were all satiated and tired by the end of the day, and I tucked into my Minnie for dinner, reading and bed.

*Seven flights up. I climbed one flight; R&D went all the way to the top! EEK!!

A little hike down to a pretty creek.

Where we had a picnic lunch

Knoll Lake

We even saw a couple of deer!

On Friday morning, just as I was getting onto the Arizona Trail for a trek to the Ranger Station, the campground host stopped me to warn me a bear had been spotted in the area, headed toward us. I gave it a few minutes thought, and trudged on, talking out loud all the way. I made it safely, and spent the morning getting a guided tour of the Blue Ridge compound. Richard brought me home at lunch time, and I embraced "retirement lifestyle" all afternoon out in my recliner lawn chair with a good book.

At 6:00 p.m. Richard and Dianna picked me up and we drove down to the cafe at Clint's Well for all-you-can-eat fish fry. A thunderstorm moved in while we ate, and by the time we got back to the campground, the rain was really coming down. I spent the coziest night imaginable with the rain tapping on the roof while curled up in my big bed under the comforter reading for a while, then watching videos.

Saturday dawned cool, crisp and clean; perfect weather for packing up and heading back down the mountain. I pulled into Mesa just before noon.

I have a few things to attend to at home for the remainder of the month, but hope to be back on the road heading north by early July. Since Dale's Alaska plans have pretty much been squashed with the delay in getting his Honda fixed, he just may join up with me for a bit of my sojourn to the Pacific Northwest. Like good retirees, we will remain flexible with our plans and build in some opportunities to do our own thing, but I sure wouldn't mind his company and expertise for some of my trip.

Until then, see you down the road.

My latest ... and longest ... camping trip, so far - Part 1

I wrapped up a few chores at home and struck out for high country on Sunday morning (the 5th). I drove up to Payson, and this time I turned right on highway 260 instead of keeping north toward Pine. Twenty-nine miles later, I pulled into the Rim Campground where Dale had a big double space staked out for us. His Minnie was parked about ten feet from the edge of the Mogollon Rim, and I positioned mine at right angles to his. Before doing anything else, we made sure to get Hanna's tether staked in a spot where she couldn't slip over the edge.

We wandered up the road exploring the area a bit, and then relaxed in our camp space waiting for Richard and Dianna to arrive.  They were out on one of their 4-wheel driving expeditions, and ended up at our campground with hot dogs and potato salad. We had a weinie roast and enjoyed a few hours of chit chat before they headed back up the road before too many elk ventured out.

The next two days went like this: Take a 2-3 mile hike in the morning, come back and have lunch, then read or watch TV or nap the afternoon away, take another 1-2 mile walk, sit outside again enjoying the breeze that came up over the rim, and finally retire into our respective motor homes for dinner, evening relaxation and bed. It was really hard work, but someone had to do it.

We watched the smoke of the Juniper fire south of us, and got updates from the experts at the Ranger Station (R&D). With several fires burning in the Tonto, Coconino and Apache-Sitgreaves forests, we felt pretty lucky not to have our pretty setting impacted by the smell of smoke or campfire restrictions.
 

On Wednesday morning, we both packed up and drove back into Payson, where we planned to dump and then meet up one last time at Walmart. I wanted to fill my fresh water tank with good potable water, so I stopped at Payson Campground RV Resort where they have a pay dump with water. After discovering it would cost me $10 to dump PLUS $10 for water, I chose just the water and decided to dump for free at the Giant Station. Once I got down there, Dale informed me that due to maintenance vehicles in the way, I wasn't going to be able to get my Minnie in there. He reminded me that Richard had said I could dump at the Ranger Station where they were if I need to, so that's what I decided to do.

Dale and I did our Walmart shopping and said good bye, then he was headed to Little Green Valley and I proceeded north on Hwy 87 to Blue Ridge. 

New Curtains

I made new curtains for the over-the-cab bunk windows. The ones in the Minnie when I got it were totally shredded from sun damage, so I took them down, took the drape hooks off, made new panels from the same fabric as my recovered dinette cushions, and reattached the drape hooks. I put them all back up this morning and they look SO much better!

 

Camping with the grandsons

I promised Nathan and Andrew that I would take them on a camping trip after I retired. Last week, the weather was nice at Roosevelt Lake and we packed up and headed up there.

After we set up our camp space, we walked down to the lake shore on Thursday afternoon.

 A perfect camping dinner for boys: hotdogs!

The boys were excited to get to sleep in the over-the-cab loft bed.

On Saturday morning, it rained a little, so we stayed inside playing games waiting for the weather to clear.

Around 10:30, we drove over to Tonto National Monument and hiked up to the Lower Cliff Dwellings. It was a very educational visit to this ancient village, and also great exercise walking up the steep trail.

We had a picnic lunch near Roosevelt Dam before heading back to town.

A short trip, but lots of fun!

Cottonwood & Jerome

I took a three day trip this week in my Minnie. Dale is camped up near Cottonwood, and I decided to drive up and join him for a few days before he heads north to Alaska this summer.

I haven't had my Minnie out of the back yard since November when I went to Roosevelt Lake, and it had gathered a lot of dust, especially on the windshield. I hosed off the front of the truck and washed the windows with Windex, but one of these days I need to get a real full-coach wash.

I managed to back out through the gate by myself with no trouble. It took twice pulling forward and back to get positioned right on the ramps over the curb, but I also did it all by myself without gouging out too much of the road asphalt. That was a great feeling.

I got the tires aired up at Discount Tire (all 6 were about 20 pounds low), filled up with gas, and propane. I got my first ding (okay, more like a crunch) pulling away from the propane pump when I turned a bit too soon and bumped the rear fender on a post. I've known several folks who have done that once, and hopefully this is the one and only time it will happen to me! Lesson learned.

I drove up to where Dale had staked out a place for our two rigs and  got set up.

 

There was a big group of WIN RV Singles camped there and we joined several of the them around a campfire that evening. All in all, we met about eight members, and were encouraged to join their organization at least a couple dozen times. (We promised to think about it, but made no commitments.)

On Thursday, Dale and I rode his motorcycle up to Jerome and spent some time in the mining museum at Jerome State Historic Park and Douglas Mansion, and then wandered around the town for a while. I was surprised to discover that one of the Jerome family daughters was Winston Churchill's mother. We learned about how the topology of the town has changed due to the number of underground mine shafts and tunnels that collapsed  causing several large landslides over the years. Nowadays, they only do open pit mining in the area. The town's population has dwindled from ~15000 during the mining hay day to its current <1000 residents.

We stopped at Walmart on the way back, and when we came out, the motorcycle wouldn't start. After about a half dozen tries, it finally took hold and we made it back to camp. Whew! It would have been a long walk. (Dale thinks it's the fuel injection system, and he might have to go back to Phoenix to get it repaired.)

 

Strong winds blew all day Friday and we stayed inside most of the day, reading, watching TV and writing blog entries. 

It felt colder overnight because of the wind, so I turned my thermostat up a couple degrees, and it kicked on four times in the night.

Richard and Dianna came by on Saturday from Blue Ridge Ranger Station campground on their way to Prescott for groceries. We all went into Cottonwood for lunch together, then they moved on up the road while I got ready to move back down the road ... toward home.

I pulled into Mesa about 4:00. It feels good to be home, but I'm looking forward to my next trip. Can't wait to take the boys on an overnighter!

Retirement

I'm on a one week countdown now for my retirement date. April 1 is just around the corner. Many people have asked me if I will head out in my RV immediately following my last day. Here are my "plans", although I use that term loosely. I want to embrace retirement flexibility and not put too much in writing so I won't be held to any promises.

I'd like to take a couple of short camping trips up to the Rim and maybe to Roosevelt Lake in April. I have promised my two grandsons that I will take them on an overnight trip after I retire.

My daughter and granddaughter will be in town in early May for a Ballet conference and performance that I want to attend, so I will stick close to home until after that.

Then I hope to head north in late May or early June, for Idaho, Washington and Oregon. That's where I'd like to spend the summer months, in search of 70° locales. I'll be trying to find lots of boondocking locations in high country, and making many stops along the way as the whim hits me.

April 1st is drawing nigh. No April Fools!

Roosevelt Lake

My brother Dale made it back to town from his summer sojourn up north, so I wasted no time convincing him we should do a weekender in our Minnies. He suggested Roosevelt Lake because the weather would be nice up there in November.

Last Saturday morning we headed out. We took the northern loop, driving up the Beeline Highway toward Payson. I was in the lead for the first leg of the journey, but when I missed the turn off Highway 87 onto Highway 188 and had to U turn and come back, I let him lead the rest of the way to the campground. Good thing too, because I would have pulled into Cholla, and he was headed to Windy Hill. It's all about the AT&T cell signal, and Windy has more bars.

We drove around until we found a couple of facing spaces where I would be in the shade and he would be in the sun. (Guess which one of us has solar panels?)

That's me on the left, and Dale on the right

After setting up and taking Hanna for a walk, we hopped on his motorcycle and zipped up to the dam for a look around.

Very pretty! Then we went to Tonto Monument to tour the Visitor Center. We decided to climb up to the Lower Cliff Dwelling that afternoon. It was a very steep walk up a paved trail and we stopped a few times to catch our breath, but the view and ancient village were worth it.

Looking toward Roosevelt Lake
(the water level is pretty low)

We made a reservation to join the guided tour to the Upper Cliff Dwelling on Sunday morning and then rode back to the campground. We sat outside in our chairs for a bit before starting supper, then I went into the motorhome to get something and found this:

After just a couple of hours of sitting in camp, my coach batteries were dead! Fortunately, the engine battery was still fine, so I wasn't stranded. Well, my brother was there, so I guess I wouldn't have been stranded. But neither of us had jumper cables, so my Minnie might have been stranded if it wouldn't have started. Whew! We checked everything we could think of, and had a lengthy text conversation with my oldest brother Richard (who is also an RVer), and all we could deduce is the batteries had gone bad. Headlamp to the rescue!!

After sharing our supper and a movie in Dale's mini-Minnie (his is 24' compared to my 27'), I went home to get ready for bed by "candlelight". Okay, so it was really a flashlight, but it did feel slightly primitive.

As I did when I went to the Rim in September, I had taken my laptop and some DVDs and I went to bed to watch Gilmore Girls until I fell asleep. It was cold - down into the low 40s - but I had snuggly blankets. However, I did get worried about Hanna in the night (she doesn't sleep with me, but curled up on the chair), and I got up to cover her up. I had to command her to lie back down on the chair while I put blankets over her because she thought I was getting up to play. Silly girl! It was 1:30 in the morning!!

I went back to sleep knowing she was warm, and slept until 5:20. I swear, when I retire the first thing I'm planning to overcome is the habit of waking up at such horrific hours. Ugh! I couldn't fall back to sleep, so finally got up to make some coffee and oatmeal.

About 9:30, Dale and I rode his motorcycle back up to Tonto for our Ranger-guided tour to the Upper Dwelling. We had packed some snacks, sandwiches and water in a backpack, and we were ready for the trek. We had been informed it would take about 3 hours. There was a lot of climbing up a steep trail and lots of steps, but the ranger stopped several times along the way to point out interesting things or give us some history of what we were seeing. We did lose one guy along the way; he was slightly overweight and out of shape, and just couldn't keep up with the group. It was very interesting, and the higher we climbed, the prettier the views became.

 

The Ruins

Our Ranger guide in a well preserved room.
Notice the grinding stones at his feet.

The view through a T-shaped window

Dale

It had started to rain while we were in the ruins, so we nearly sprinted back down the mountain to get back to the campground before it started pouring.

It was time to head home, but I had one more new RVer initiation that needed to be done first. We drove back up to Cholla Campground where there is a free dump and I learned how to do that distasteful job. I'm happy to report it wasn't so bad, and everything came out fine in the end!

My first dump!

We took the southern route home, through Miami and Superior, and back into the city via US 60. It rained pretty steadily most of the way, but was a beautiful drive home.

Now to figure out what is wrong with my batteries.